MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA 165

believe that the loss of this Province is the source of all
the dilemmas we are suffering. I do not flatter myself
that Silesia will be reconquered during my lifetime, and
no one desires the continuation of peace more fervently
than I do, but if I accepted the system of alliances which
Kaunitz now suggests, I should make it impossible for
my successors ever to regain this Province."

Kaunitz, who loved Paris and everything French, and
who was feeling more cheerful, answered the Empress's
letter almost immediately. In his answer, dated
December 5, 1751, he assured her that " nothing was
farther from his mind than urging an alliance with
Prussia." He had, so he now said, " only wanted her
to understand the arguments with which he himself
had to be familiar in his dealings with the French Court/'

Though the situation was unchanged, Kaunitz's new
optimism was partly based on Madame de Pompadour's
growing interest in him. "I do not know how it
happened/' Kaunitz wrote, " but somehow or other it
is true that the King and Madame de Pompadour and
their circle are greatly attached to me. All this is no
doubt outside real business, but personal affections of
this kind are never harmful, and upon occasion they
may prove of the greatest importance/*

Maria Theresa did not quite share Kaunitz's new
assurance. Her belief that ultimately France and her
country would be united by an alliance was not shaken,
but she realised that it would take a very long time to
bring about such a union. Towards the end of 1752,
she decided to recall Kaunitz to Vienna, Francis, who
had spoken of the rapprochement with France as " an
unnatural alliance which is impracticable and must
never take place," was stubbornly, though as a rote
silently, opposing her plans. She needed some one with